The lectionary
is taught in a three-year cycle. The first year is the Year of
Matthew.

We know very little about the writers of the New Testament, just
as we know very little about Jesus' disciples: the focus of their
writing and living was always Jesus himself.

Matthew, of all the Gospel
writers, seems most aware of the need to place Jesus in Jewish
tradition. He is the only writer who includes the genealogy of
Joseph in his story.

But we do know that Matthew
was one of the original twelve disciples, and one more disciple
of Jesus who had two names: Luke and Mark both call him Levi, which
may mean that he was from the tribe of Levi, the people who served
as the staff of the Temple:
musicians, guards, custodians, or record-keepers. From the way
he wrote, we are certain he was Jewish.

Matthew was a tax-collector,
a profession that was despised in Palestine
at that time. Rome auctioned off tax
territories to various individuals; after the tax-collectors gathered
the amount they had bid, any money that was left over they could
keep for themselves. Many of them collected as much money as they
could in any way that they could in order to become rich very
quickly. Tax-collectors were considered to be so dishonest that
they could not testify in courts of law.

When Jesus called Matthew
to follow him, he may have been calling Matthew back to his roots,
to a knowledge of a better way of life that became better and
better for him as he followed Jesus.

The Pharisees
disliked the fact that Jesus would eat with anyone, especially
tax collectors. Perhaps the many stories of banquets to which
no one came in the book of Matthew reflected the tax collectors'
lives. They were wealthy people who could give large, elaborate
dinner parties, but anyone who thought he was respected in the
community would refuse to come.

But Jesus came, and the
tax collectors welcomed him into their hearts and homes.